Title: In the Shadow of the Sun
Author: Anne Sibley O’Brien
Format: Single book or audiobook
Audiobook narrator: Jackie Chung
Length: 8hrs 56min
Age group: 10+
North Korea has been in the news almost constantly. But other than alarming headlines, snippets of grim reports from defectors, and images of a strangely-coiffed dictator, what do we or our kids really know about this country, its history, its people?
In the Shadow of the Sun is a gripping adventure that lifts the curtain’s edge on one of the world’s most secretive nations.
Twelve-year-old Mia Adams is on an unusual family vacation in North Korea with her father and surly older brother Simon. When dad is seized by North Korean authorities on charges of being a spy, the children find themselves stranded in a country about which they know dangerously little. Armed with little more than a tourist guidebook and an illegal camera that holds incriminating photographs of labor camps, the siblings are on the run for their lives.
Their journey fundamentally shifts Mia’s perception of herself. Her emergence from timid younger sister to resourceful survivalist is one of the joys of reading this book. As an adoptee from Korea, Mia must also grapple with being in the land of her birth and with her bi-cultural heritage. As they traverse the landscape, we also get unique glimpses of local life: Stories of individual North Koreans from varied backgrounds are woven through the tale.
Author Anne Sibley O’Brien’s thorough research makes the plot believable.(I found it particularly interesting to trace parts of the journey on Google Earth!) As an adoptive mother herself, O’Brien speaks to the adoptive experience with insider knowledge. The author also spent much of her childhood in South Korea (you can check out this essay for more on her own bi-cultural background. O’Brien is also behind The Diverse Book Finder that I spotlighted recently). Her deep understanding of the culture and her empathy with the people of North Korea radiate throughout this book. It is an action-packed adventure, thoughtfully rendered.
I absolutely loved the audiobook, and my 13-year-old could not put the print edition down. Highly recommended.
Audiobook access: The links above are through Audible at Amazon.com. Depending upon where you live in the world, you can likely also access these audiobooks for free through your public library and other resources that I am blogging about, like Hoopla.
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